Call for coordinated approach to skill development

Asking organisations to give up silo approach, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu called for a coordinated effort between universities and industry for skill development and knowledge-based society with the government playing the role of facilitator.

Laying foundation for Andhra Pradesh campus of Centurion University of Technology and Management (CUTM) on Wednesday, he was all praise for the university’s work and its approach of continuing education for those who dropped out, giving them skills and assured it of co-operation. “The university may be poor but if you have knowledge you can create wealth,” he said.

That various companies had invested ₹100 crore in equipment on its campuses also spoke for its efforts, he said complimenting it for creating one lakh skilled persons.

Dwelling on the role of disruptive technologies, he cited the example of solar power becoming cheaper with the prospect of rendering thermal plants redundant in future and electric cars replacing petrol and diesel vehicles.

The campus will come up at Rallavagu in Vizianagaram district on 200 acres and for now the university will function at 60000 sft space at Anandapuram.

Vice-president of CUTM D.N. Rao said though it was a private university it was public in character with thrust on social impact working in the backward district of Gajapathi. Of the one lakh that graduated from the university since 2005, 70,000 to 75,000 got employment.

“We wanted to replicate in Andhra Pradesh what we have been doing in Odisha with focus on North Andhra,” he said.

Managing Director of Dassault Systems Samson Khaou lauded the multiple entry and multiple exit systems of the university and its model of sustainable resource management. Dassault that started as a start-up 35 years ago had 15000 employees worldwide with 2500 from India in R&D.

An MoU signed between the university and Tata Automation on skill development in robotics was exchanged in the presence of the Chief Minister.